Blaine tried to smile, but it came out a little awkward and in return, made Kurt feel awkward.

“How about I choose one since you got to choose the last two.” Kurt said, to which Blaine nodded vigorously. 

Kurt shifted his body so his back was leaning against the arm of the couch and his legs were pulled in close, mainly to keep himself from falling apart.  His heart was starting to hurt, but in a way that he didn’t mind.  Those feelings he got whenever he was with Blaine were the same, but they were a little heavier these days.  It took a lot more effort for Kurt to hold in his emotions than before. He looked around the room, trying to figure out what he wanted to say.  What he needed to say.

  And then he saw it.

Right there, in the corner of the living room, where the door to the bedroom began, Kurt spotted the two red handprints on the cerulean blue walls.  They had lost their color a bit and were chipped in a few places, but they were still very much there.  His eyes immediately filled with tears, as he turned to Blaine.  “The love-prints.” He said, along with a chuckle.  Blaine’s eyes lit up and Kurt could see the tears forming at his eyelids, the emotions from that day rushing back into their minds.

“Blaine Michael Anderson, this has gone on way too long. I can’t let you live like this anymore. You need a change.” Kurt demanded as the couple swerved through the aisles of Benjamin Moore looking for a new color for Blaine’s apartment.

“But, Kurt, I like my neon purple living room.  It’s special!” Blaine whined, trudging behind Kurt like a 10-year-old boy who didn’t want to get rid of the spaceships on his ceiling.  He had denied any suggestion Kurt made and it was starting to really frustrate Kurt.

“Blaine, honey, this is for your own good.” He stopped in front of row of cans and his eyes popped. “How about this one?” He held up a can that was labeled Cerulean Frost and Blaine’s once doubting eyes had shifted into those of excitement and giddiness.

“Oooooo, Kurt, its preeeeeetty!” Blaine snatched the can from Kurt’s hands and examined every inch of the container.

Kurt looked at his boyfriend with an amused grin and led the two over to the cashier where Kurt, after much retaliation from Blaine, paid for the paint and the two walked back to Blaine’s apartment.

After the couple covered everything in sheets and newspaper, they started painting the living room walls in Blaine’s apartment.

Blaine was in charge of the wall closest to the door and Kurt, the one opposite.  Kurt had a great lawnmower system going and was finished within an hour.  He put his roller in the container filled with paint and turned around to examine Blaine’s side. “Okay, let’s see how you did.”

The second his eyes found the wall, he gasped.

Blaine did not cover the wall with paint at all. Instead, he wrote a clear and simple message in big, blue letters.

I LOVE YOU.

“Blaine.” Kurt breathed out, unable to speak properly.  Blaine was leaning against the right side of the wall with a smirk on his lips. He pushed himself off the wall and walked over to Kurt, taking his hands in his own.

“Kurt Hummel, I love you. I’ve loved you for the 6 months that I’ve known you, and I know we’ve only been dating for a couple months, but I just know. I know how I feel when I wake up in the morning and know I’m going to see your face.  I know how I feel when I go to work as a barista because I love being with you and would sacrifice everything for you.  When you smile, or laugh; when you get angry with me; when you cook for me and when I do stupid things and you make fun of me.  I love you through it all.  Every moment of everyday, you are the one I’m thinking about.  I love you, Kurt. Always.”

Kurt had started crying at some point during Blaine’s speech and pulled him in for a hug when he finished speaking.  He pulled back a little to kiss Blaine, hard and passionate, on the mouth and wrap his arms around his neck. After a couple seconds, he pulled away and whispered, “I love you too, Blaine Anderson. Always.” And kissed him again.

Blaine lifted Kurt off the ground and threw him on the couch, climbing on top of him.  His arms were holding him up on either side of Kurt’s head, his lower body resting on top of Kurt’s.  Kurt pushed himself up on to his elbows and kissed Blaine again, but sweeter than the last.  Their lips moved slowly together, savoring each other and that moment.  Blaine was the one to pull away this time and stood up in front of the couch. “Help me finish?” He asked, putting out a hand for Kurt to take, which he did.

Kurt stood up, holding on to Blaine’s hand, and walking towards Blaine’s wall.  “Hold on.” Kurt said and walked across to the room, pulled out his phone and played with it a little, before placing it on top of the sheet-covered bookcase and ran back over to the wall. “We only have 10 seconds so come here!”

Blaine, extremely confused, jogged over to Kurt who was standing next to the “I” on the wall.  Kurt grabbed Blaine by the shirt and crashed his lips onto Blaine’s, throwing his arms around his neck, as Blaine wrapped his stronger arms around Kurt’s waist, lifting him slightly off the ground. The two heard a click and Blaine dropped Kurt back on to the ground.  Kurt ran back over to get his phone and smiled as he looked at the picture.  Blaine walked over and behind Kurt, placing his hands on Kurt’s arms and peered over his shoulder at the picture, tears forming at his eyes again.  He rested his chin on Kurt’s shoulder, kissed his neck, and said, “I love you.”

Kurt turned his head and kissed the top of Blaine’s, “I love you, too.  Now we can finish painting the walls.”

Blaine ran over to the unfinished wall and waited for Kurt to grab his roller and join him.  As the two finished painting the wall, as well as the one adjacent to it, Kurt had a brilliant idea pop into his head. 

Blaine was busy cleaning up around him to notice Kurt sneaking up behind him with a hand covered in blue paint.  Kurt jumped on Blaine’s back and smeared the paint all over Blaine’s face.

“Gah, what the hell!” Blaine screamed out, laughing at the same time.  Kurt quickly got off his back and ran for cover behind the coffee table.  Blaine reached down and grabbed his paintbrush and attacked Kurt with it, covering his face and clothes with the blue paint.  They were both laughing and rolling around on the floor, trying to attack the other.  After a moment, Kurt put his hands up to show Blaine he gave up.  Blaine was straddling Kurt, who lay on the floor next to the wall he had painted.  Kurt’s head turned to the side, looking at the wall, and noticed a small spot where the paint had dripped and dried to form a few bubbles. “Dammnit, I messed up.” Kurt said and nudged Blaine to get off so he could examine it better.

Blaine, noticing what Kurt was talking about, got up and ran into his room and grabbed his box of personal paints and pulled out the red. “We can fix it.” He said, squirting a dollop of paint into his palm and smearing it together with his other hand.  Blaine knelt down next to Kurt and grabbed both of Kurt’s hands, spreading the red paint that was on his own hands onto Kurt’s.

“Blaine, what the hell are you doing?” Kurt asked.

Blaine ignored him and took Kurt’s left hand, pushing it onto the wall to make a bright red print on the freshly painted blue wall.  He took his own right hand and made a print next to Kurt’s and outlined the two prints with a heart shape.

“Look, we made love-prints. Get it? Love-prints? Like handprints but with our love?” Blaine was bouncing on his knees with a goofy smile on his face.

Kurt let out a loud laugh and leaned over to kiss Blaine’s nose. “Very cute.”

Blaine enveloped Kurt into his arms and pushed them both on to the ground.  Kurt turned on his left side and Blaine cuddled up against him, throwing his right arm lazily over Kurt and pulling him tight to his chest.  The couple fell asleep right there on the floor, but not before whispering “I love you” to each other.

Blaine was now sitting cross-legged on the couch facing Kurt as Kurt told the story.  When he was finished, Kurt stretched his legs and arms out, kicking Blaine a bit with his feet, cause the other boy to laugh.  It was a strange encounter, seeing Blaine laugh.  It was the first time Kurt had seen him smile so genuinely in a very long time.  Blaine was about to say something, but another memory from that day popped into Kurt’s head. “Oh god, do you remember what happened a few hours later?” Kurt asked, folding his legs back to where they were before.

Blaine thought about for a minute and then his face flushed and his eyes sunk a bit.  He quickly shook the look of sadness off his face and faked a smile. “Oh I sure do.”

“Blaine! Blaaaaaaaaine! Goddamnit, Blaine, open the door! These bags are heavy! Blaine!” Kurt heard a vigorous knocking at the door and a voice shouting for the sleeping boy next to him.  Kurt peeled Blaine off of him and went to answer the door himself. Kurt swung the white door open to reveal a man, late thirties, standing before him with three suitcases and a pissed off expression plastered onto his face.

“Um, hi?” Kurt said, a little unsure of what to do.

“Hi. You were not who I was expecting to see.” The man replied, pushing his way past Kurt and into the apartment where he dropped his bags onto the floor with a slam and turned around to face Kurt.

“Cooper Anderson, Blaine’s older brother.” The man said and stuck out his hand for Kurt to shake.

A little more at ease knowing a complete stranger didn’t just barge in, he took Cooper’s hand and shook it firmly. “Kurt Hummel, Blaine’s boyfriend.”

Cooper looked surprised, but happy to meet Kurt. “Well, Kurt, it is a pleasure to meet you.  My little baby brother here was supposed to pick me up from the airport an hour ago.  I guess I have you to thank for that not happening.” Cooper said and added a wink.  He walked over to the corner where Blaine was still asleep, pondering whether or not to kick him a few times to wake him up, but instead back away and on plopped down on the couch. He turned around to look at Kurt and nodded at Kurt to join him.

Kurt apprehensively sat down next to Cooper and folded his hands in his lap, waiting for Cooper to say something.

“This is going to be cliché. But just listen, okay?” Cooper was looking hard at Kurt and Kurt nodded in response. “Okay good. Now, Blaine is my little brother.  He’s my only brother which means he is everything to me.  He’s a kind, smart, enthusiastic person who has a lot of love to share and I just know he loves you a whole lot.”

Kurt smiled to himself, remembering the events of the day.

Cooper continued, “I just need to make sure you know what you’re doing because Blaine can’t afford to get hurt. Now I don’t know a lot about you, Kurt, and I’m more than willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but you have to promise me you won’t hurt him.  You have to tell me right now that you’re going to treat him with respect and love him as much as you can.” Cooper had somehow moved his face closer to Kurt’s, making sure his eyes were piercing the other boy’s.

“Cooper, I can promise you that I will never do anything intentional to hurt Blaine. Trust me.” Kurt said, putting a hand on Cooper’s and giving it a squeeze.

Cooper pulled his hand back but then placed it on Kurt’s arm and shook Kurt’s shoulder a little bit. “I do. And thank you.”

Cooper got up, and with one swift leap, landed on top of Blaine and proceeded to slap his face around until Blaine finally built up the energy to push his brother off of me.

“God, Coop, what the hell?”

“How about next time you take a break from screwing your boyfriend and pick me up at the airport, dick, and then maybe I’ll refrain from hurting you.” Cooper replied and climbed off of Blaine and shot a smile in Kurt’s direction.

Blaine just laughed it off, and hugged his brother when he stood up. 

Kurt looked at the brothers with admiration, feeling so much love for Blaine and knowing he’d learn to love Cooper as well.

By the time Kurt had finished speaking, his eyes were fixed on the floor in front of him.  But much to his surprise, he looked up to see Blaine with tears streaming down his face and a sob threatening to escape from his mouth.  Something was up, and it wasn’t just the memories. It was something big.